Sunday, September 29, 2013

Bottle Gentian


This picture of Gentiana andrewsii is posted for comparison to the Soapwort Gentian posted earlier. This attractive plant often grows in aspen thickets on damp, sandy soil. Compared to Soapwort Gentian, this plant has darker blue flowers that are more tapering into the summit, and this plant tends to grow 2 or 3 times taller. I'm sure that someone who never leaves their lab (and has never gotten their feet muddy or received a mosquito bite) has renamed it, but it is Gentiana andrewsii and always will be. I have a very large botanical library that says it is G. andrewsii

3 comments:

Scott Namestnik said...

Very nice. This provides and excellent comparison given the features you mentioned previously.

Keith Board said...

Thanks Scott. The flowers are deep blue, and they look that way on my camera and on my computer at home. However, on my computer at work they look purple. I have never seen them look purple in the field, just deep blue. I guess every computer monitor is different.

Mary Huey said...

Thanks for posting the picture of the bottle gentian -- I just encountered it at the Tinker's Creek Nature Preserve near Streetboro, Ohio on Thursday and had never seen it -- you just saved me the work of prowling through my books! Do the flowers open any further?